April 9th, 2009
As the 2009 cricket season bestows itself upon us, we can feel the
excitement all around. In a few days the parks will be filled with
noise, players, supporters and hopefully not a lot of spring coats.

Hard-hitting
Andrew Gonsalves.

Bobby Pahalad New York Softball Cricket League 2008 Cricketer
of the Year.
Photos by Shiek Mohamed

Come this weekend New York Softball Cricket League will start their
season with its twenty-five overs competition sponsored by PK Realty.
Much is anticipated in this competition since players from the hard-ball
leagues, will be on display and challenging the softball fanatics
and stars.
The likes of Prashad Mahadeo, Kumar Nandalall, Khaleem Bux, Andrew
Gonsalves, Telston Johnson, Ravin Ivan and others will come against
softball stars such as Bobby Pahalad, Bhola Pahalad, Chris Shobai,
Eon Ellis, Brian Maniram, the Mattai brothers, Sunil Panday, and many
talented softball cricketers. We will have to wait and see the outcome
of such challenges.

But much more would be expected from the hard-ball leagues since cricket
is on the rise in New York City with the introduction of the Public
School Athletic League (PSAL) cricket competition, and the New York
Police Department’s NYPD United Cricket Twenty/20 tournament.

The parks were filled last year with the different tournaments and
organized matches such as the Ed Ahmad Cup, Mayor’s Cup, Guyana
Inter-County games and the many other matches held to help develop
cricket in New York and the USA. It should be encouraging doing the
same, and even staging more of these games.

Over 600 students would have taken part in the PSAL competition and
from all indications that number should increase dramatically since
a lot of schools did not participate in 2008, for one reason or another.

The future of the game is in the hands of the youths, so the adults
should encourage them to stay with the game and help in whatever way
they could.

Despite the current financial situation affecting the world and us
in New York, the game should still be encouraged, your support in
any form will definitely help to broaden and spread the cricket culture.

But more importantly, the results and hype of the games should be
publicized. The administrators should ensure local media outlets are
invited on a weekly basis so the game can be reported and published.
We have seen PSAL, NYPD Twenty/20 and the Mayor’s Cup games
were covered in some detail by the daily and weekly newspapers, as
well as some television coverage. It is widely believed that the publicity
helped the game.

The need for a cricket media outlet would be more than welcome at
this time, but help from local businesses would have to play a larger
supporting role, so it can be sustained.

Newyorkcricket.com is trying it utmost best to help the game, and
as such the leagues and clubs are asked to send in their reports from
week to week to help promote the game. It is the desire of newyorkcricket.com
to start live score updates on it site for the 2009 season. So please
email us at newyorkcricket@aol.com if you are interested in being
a part of such an initiative.